«Հայաստանի ելնող առյուծները» - Սամվել ԳՐԻԳՈՐՅԱՆ

Samvel Grigoryan's article "The Rising Lions of Armenia" is devoted to a critical analysis of the current state of Armenian heraldry and vexillology, as well as to the problem of the loss of continuity with the rich symbolic tradition of Armenian statehood, spanning more than two millennia.

Introduction and Statement of the Problem

The author points to the striking contrast between the splendor of historical Armenian emblematics — coats of arms, banners, dynastic signs — and the low quality of contemporary heraldic practice in the Republic of Armenia, beginning with the state coat of arms and flag themselves and extending to the symbols of the marzes and cities. In the author's view, the cause of this state of affairs is widespread heraldic illiteracy and prevalent misconceptions about the nature of state symbols.

Key Thesis: The Priority of Knowledge Over Drawing

The article's central argument is a critique of the approach whereby the creation of a coat of arms or flag is entrusted to a "patriotically inspired artist" without regard to his competence in heraldry and vexillology as independent historical disciplines. The author emphasizes:

a coat of arms is, first and foremost, a blazon — a concise description in a special language — while the image is secondary to the semantic formula;
the historical example of the Camden Roll (ca. 1280), containing the blazon of the coat of arms of the Armenian king, confirms the primacy of the verbal description over the drawing;
artistic talent in itself does not guarantee the creation of a quality state symbol in the absence of historical and heraldic knowledge.

The Case of Martiros Saryan

A significant portion of the article is devoted to an analysis of Martiros Saryan's heraldic and vexillological work as an illustrative example of competence being replaced by artistic inspiration:

the "rainbow flag" of 1919, proposed by Saryan to A. Khatisian, lacks historical and national justification and was accordingly rejected;
the "coat of arms" of Soviet Armenia, created by the same author, was de jure a coat of arms but de facto did not conform to the canons of heraldic science, being in essence a pictorial composition;
the image of Ararat in this "coat of arms" is devoid of the biblical symbolism of the Flood and the Ark present in the current coat of arms of the Republic of Armenia, which makes these images symbolically distinct.

The Problem of Substituting the Theme of Statehood

The author warns against initiatives to revive the Soviet emblem as a state symbol, discerning in the hypertrophied depiction of the mountain a displacement of the theme of historical Armenian statehood, represented by the lion and eagle emblems of the ancient Armenian kingdoms. In the author's opinion, such a substitution dangerously fits into the concept of a "people without a state."

Conclusion

The article's key conclusion is that the creation of worthy state symbols requires not artistic inspiration but a profound knowledge of history, heraldry, and vexillology, and that national symbols and the signs of statehood on the coat of arms of Armenia should not be opposed to one another but should harmoniously complement each other.